Vehicles are known in which the luggage compartment is provided with a horizontal loading shelf, which may be moved height-wise between a lowered position adjacent to a bottom surface of the luggage compartment and a raised position for splitting the luggage compartment into an upper space and a lower space.
In order to be held fixed in the raised position, the loading shelf usually has side fastening members, which are coupled to the side panels of the luggage compartment in a releasable manner. Specifically, such fastening members are either fastened to retaining devices or resting on supporting brackets.
From patent EP2075153, a loading shelf is known having a main board and two front plates which are coupled to respective portions of a twin back seat. The portions of the back seat along with the respective plates are movable parallel to the longitudinal advance direction of the vehicle. In this manner, when the loading shelf is in teh raised position, the plates may cover the gap which has been formed between the back seat and the main board.
The need is felt to improve the above-described solution so as to be able to rest the plates on the backrests of the back seat when such backrests are folded forward on their respective seats, so as to form a single loading surface defined by the backrests and the loading shelf.